Beds, mattresses, duvet covers, and sheets — all of it needed to be bought fresh. Fortunately, Jhin had his Storage Space, because otherwise hauling that many items back to the guild cottage would have meant hiring a horse cart.
Once the bedding was sorted, it was time for kitchenware and daily sundries. Jhin and Kokkoro split up: he headed off to buy kitchenware while she went to handle the household goods.
While browsing the kitchenware stall, Jhin spotted some white porcelain-glazed cups and had an idea. After a brief chat with the shopkeeper, he bought ten cups in total, then borrowed the shop's cup-painting tools to draw chibi versions of Kokkoro and the others on four of them.
Since both Pecorine and he occasionally ate in truly heroic quantities, Jhin chose the largest available sizes for things like clay pots and soup pots — that should keep the "not enough food" problem from ever cropping up.
He finished buying kitchenware with brisk efficiency and returned to their agreed meeting spot, only to find Kokkoro hadn't arrived yet. He followed the direction she'd gone and before long spotted her at a stall, haggling cheerfully with the towel vendor, a stout older woman.
What a wonderfully capable guide.
Jhin didn't walk over to interrupt. He hung back and watched.
"Shopkeeper, really — you can't do one hundred Eris per towel?" Kokkoro asked.
"Little miss, if I sold it to you for a hundred Eris I'd be working for free," the woman huffed. "Feel this softness, look at those colors — two hundred Eris and not a copper less."
"How about this, then," Kokkoro countered. "I'll buy five. Ninety Eris each — deal?"
"Ninety?!" The woman looked as though she'd nearly spat in Kokkoro's face. She waved her hand impatiently. "Ninety Eris is charity, not business. No, no — since you're buying five, I'll go as low as one hundred and fifty."
"In that case, never mind." Kokkoro set the towel down with a look of polite regret and turned to leave.
The moment the woman saw her walking away without the slightest hesitation, she rushed to call her back. "Hey, hey, hey — don't go! A young girl like you out shopping all by herself — fine, one hundred Eris a towel. But that's only because you're buying five. One less and the deal's off."
Kokkoro spun around and scooped up the five towels she'd had her eye on all along. "Here you are — five hundred Eris, exact change."
Flushed with the victory of a successful haggle, Kokkoro came bouncing down the street with a spring in her step — and then noticed Jhin standing at the roadside, smiling at her. "Master, did you finish buying the kitchenware?"
"Yep, all done. I also got to watch you bargain someone down — impressive stuff." Jhin praised her without reservation, his large hand drifting through the white strands of hair at the top of her head. "Maybe I should just put you in charge of the finances from now on."
"Thank you for the compliment, but — the money should really stay in Master's Storage Space." Kokkoro scrunched her eyes shut in quiet contentment as Jhin ruffled her hair, her heart feeling like it had been filled to the brim with warm honey.
"Got everything on your list?" "Yes." "Then let's head back." "Mm."
When they returned to the guild cottage, Megumi and Kyaru were sitting on the lawn out front chatting, while Pecorine had her sleeves rolled up and was busy chopping down a tree.
"We're back — what on earth is Pecorine doing?"
"Welcome back. The dining table in the living room had been sitting there so long it had rotted through, so she's chopping wood to build a new one."
"She knows carpentry too?" Jhin shot Pecorine a mildly astonished look, then pulled a stack of crepes out from his Storage Space. "These are from a stall outside — chestnut, apple, and mango; those were the only three flavors left. Pick whichever one you like."
"Thanks. The inside is all cleaned up," Kyaru said, taking a crepe and gesturing with it toward the guild cottage, which was gleaming from floor to ceiling. "Go ahead and bring everything you bought inside."
"Oh — Kyaru, this apple cream crepe is incredible." Megumi had decided that joining the Gourmet Hall of Fame was the single best decision she'd made in recent memory. First the deep-forest boar, then milk and mysteriously-packaged snacks out in the wilderness — and now she got to eat a sweet thing like a crepe on top of all that.
"It's decent, I'll admit. And Pecorine — don't even think about touching that one. That one's hers."
"I — I wasn't thinking anything of the sort."
"...Sure you weren't."
Jhin and Kokkoro stepped inside the guild cottage. The main hall was bare and echoing — most of the furniture had been cleared out because it was too broken-down to keep.
"Before we worry about decorating the hall, let's get the beds sorted first."
"Agreed. The hall can wait until tomorrow."
After a quick tour of the building, Jhin found there were four rooms in total — two on the ground floor, two upstairs.
"Kokkoro, it looks like you'll have to put up with sharing a room with me, I'm afraid."
"There's nothing to put up with — looking after Master is my duty, not an imposition."
"Right, that was a foolish thing for me to say. Sorry."
The two of them made up all the beds in every room. Then Kokkoro pushed open the second-floor corridor window and leaned out to call down to the other three: "Everyone — the bedrooms are ready! Come pick your rooms!"
Megumi pointed straight at the bedroom in the round tower atop the roof and announced at the top of her lungs: "As a Great Mage, that room is mine!"
"I'll take the other room on the second floor." Kyaru had already set her sights on it while she was cleaning, and seeing that no one was competing for it, she quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Pecorine paused her tree-chopping for a short intermission and ate her crepe — the guild's ideal dining table was still a work in progress. "Then I get the ground floor, I suppose. Sharing with Kokkoro sounds pretty nice, actually."
"Ah — I share a room with Master, Pecorine."
"What?! You — you two are sharing a room?!" Kyaru's tail shot straight up, every single hair bristling.
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"Hold on!"
With that, Kyaru bolted inside, found Jhin in the kitchen arranging kitchenware, and spun him around to face her. "Jhin, why are you and Kokkoro sharing a room?!"
Jhin blinked, looking genuinely baffled. "I can hardly bunk in with the rest of you, can I? Kokkoro is my personal guide — she's family. Any way you look at it, us sharing a bedroom is completely normal."
"You could have Pecorine and Kokkoro share a room."
"Wouldn't it be better to give Pecorine her own room? And you and Megumi wouldn't want to share with someone else either, would you?"
"That's—" Kyaru had no good comeback for that, but she still jabbed a finger into Jhin's chest as a warning. "Just don't you dare do anything improper with Kokkoro."
"Kokkoro would probably be really happy to know you care this much about her."
"I — I'm not caring about her, I just — as a fellow girl, I'm not comfortable with her sharing a room with you, that's all." With that declaration, Kyaru tsundere-pivoted on her heel and marched upstairs to inspect her own bedroom.
Pecorine called out from outside for Jhin to come help move a table. All five of them bustled about for another stretch, and by the time the moon had climbed into the night sky, the cottage was more or less in order — whatever details remained could wait until tomorrow.
____
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